Synopsis

Depeche Mode perform in a shadowy, industrial setting surrounded by chains, leather clothing and other imagery associated with bondage. Their stylized movements are intercut with scenes of construction workers, housewives carrying out domestic tasks, anti-war demonstrations and heated debates inside the German Bundestag. The contrast broadens the song's theme beyond sexual role-play, suggesting that systems of control and submission can appear in workplaces, homes and politics as well as in private relationships.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in Berlin, including Hansa Studios, where the band was working on the album "Some Great Reward," and the Schloss Gerhus hotel.

• Andy Fletcher later recalled that the band practiced extensively for the choreography seen in the clip.

• The political inserts include archival footage from the German Bundestag. Among the material are scenes connected with the failed 1972 no-confidence vote against Willy Brandt and the successful 1982 vote that replaced Helmut Schmidt.

• The video deliberately avoids presenting the song as a straightforward BDSM narrative. Its intercutting of domestic labor, industrial work and parliamentary conflict makes "master" and "servant" sound like roles that can exist throughout society.

• "Master And Servant" was released on August 20, 1984, as the second single from "Some Great Reward."

• The clip was later included on the video compilations "Some Great Videos" in 1985, "The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1" in 2006 and "Video Singles Collection" in 2016.